The Wellington Sakai Association is a group of Wellington residents who work with our city council to foster social, cultural and sporting relationships between people in the cities of Wellington and Sakai, Japan.

The idea of the Sakai-Wellington sister city relationship was originally promoted by the Japanese Ambassador to New Zealand, Takeo Iguchi.

In 1993, Fran Wilde, then Mayor of Wellington, visited Sakai and signed an agreement to set up a sister city relationship. On 4 February 1994 in Wellington the Mayor of Sakai, Hideo Hataya, and Mayor Wilde formally signed the sister city agreement.

The Wellington Sakai Association was set up in 1995. The mission of the association is to support the Council in the development of the sister city relationship with Sakai. There is also a Sakai Wellington Association in Japan.

Wellington and Sakai have a wide variety of exchanges, including educational exchanges, an annual marathon event and exhibitions of art, pottery and ikebana.

RECENT NEWS:

Quite a late start for what im used to with Marathons, I definitely appreciated the extra time in bed this morning. The day was clear and still with bright sunshine, a whole world away from the windy storms I had experienced while training for this race in Wellington. I was happy the weather was on our side even if it was a lowly 9 degrees on the start line.

Kosuke Hamada-san is the second runner to represent Sakai at the at the Wellington Marathon, came sixth and he did a great job promoting our sister city as well as the 泉州国際市民マラソン (Senshu International City Marathon).

Congratulations also to Dan Lowry, the fastest Wellingtonian male runner who will travel to Sakai, Japan in February 2018 as a Wellington ambassador to run in the Senshu Marathon.